Monday’s (Sept. 23) party was sponsored by the performance rights organizations ASCAP and BMI. Eldredge is a BMI member. Gorley and DeStefano are affiliated with ASCAP.

“Don’t Ya” is Eldredge’s first single to top Billboard’s country airplay chart. His two previous efforts, “Raymond”
and “It Ain’t Gotta Be Love,” peaked at No. 23 and No. 46, respectively, on Billboard’s country songs chart.

BMI’s Bradley Collins called the crowd to order and introduced Eldredge as “Nashville’s newest big voice.”

Collins said Eldredge went skydiving for the first time on Aug. 28 — as he vowed he would do if “Don’t Ya” went No. 1. It took the song 43 weeks of climbing to attain the top of the chart.

Avenue Bank, which co-sponsors BMI’s No. 1 country parties, presented the three songwriters certificates confirming that donations had been made in their names to Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, Eldredge’s charity of choice.

The singer’s first single, “Raymond,” deals with the subject of memory loss in old age, and Eldredge told CMT.com after the party that his grandmother had been afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

John Esposito, head of Warner Music Nashville, under which Eldredge’s label, Atlantic Records, is housed, was not the least nostalgic about the time it took “Don’t Ya” to reach No. 1.